Designing a Model for Facilitating the Inclusion of Higher Education International Students with Disabilities in South Africa

On 6 November 2020, the Policy Framework for Internationalisation of Higher Education in South Africa was promulgated. It provides high-level principles and guidelines for the internationalisation of higher education in South Africa, lays down specific rules for certain aspects of the process and aims to shape the process of internationalisation at South African higher education institutions, redressing past inequalities whilst addressing policy imperatives of higher education in a democratic South Africa. In this paper, we analyse the context and content of the Policy Framework. We first explore the context by discussing the historical background leading to the development and drafting of the Policy Framework, whereafter we analyse the substantive content of the Policy Framework. We consider its suitability for advancing the South African higher education system's internationalisation objectives, interrogate whether it can provide direction for comprehensive internationalisation of higher education in the country and provide recommendations on the way forward devoting attention to strategies for successful policy implementation.

Private Higher Education (PHE) in South Africa has been perceived to deliver programmes of questionable quality in search of profit maximisation (CHE 2016, 84). To curb this perception, the Council on Higher Education (CHE) has instituted strict regulations with regard to accrediting qualifications offered by Higher Education (HE) institutions. To determine the contributions of PHE to the South African higher education landscape, this article evaluates a registered management programme, on recommendation of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of the CHE, with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) (CHE, 2013). Using Kirkpatrick’s (1996) four-level model of training programme evaluation as the theoretical framework, the management programme was evaluated to determine its contribution to higher education in South Africa. The four levels included the perception of the learners, the knowledge gained by the learners, the learners’ performance in the workplace and the return on investment. Other stakeholders, such as the sponsor and students’ line managers, were interviewed to determine whether the programme has contributed to work outputs. Overall, the results show that the programme is contributing to the development of higher education in South Africa.

Globally, higher education institutions are charged with the responsibility to play three roles, which are teaching and learning, research, and community engagement. This chapter focuses on the third mission, community engagement. Reviewed literature has revealed that teaching and learning and research in higher education have had greater attention and support from the government, while community engagement remained at the periphery of this support. The success in teaching and learning and research in higher education in South Africa stems from its astute leadership, whereas the same cannot be said with community engagement. A plethora of literature has revealed that the challenges experienced in community engagement in higher education in South Africa include among others lack of, and leadership, lack and insufficient funding, and lack of outcome evaluation for example. This chapter focuses on the leadership gap in community engagement with specific attention given to four (n = 4) purposively selected institutions of higher education. The main objective was to identify the challenges impacting the successes or lack of it in community engagement efforts in higher education in South Africa. This is desktop qualitative document analysis conducted to analyse the alignment between the strategic plan and the annual reports.

In this article I would like to indicate that there is an inherent conflict between the underlying values portrayed by the policy document entitled 'National Plan for Higher Education in South Africa' and the values embodied in the discourse about the African Renaissance and the promotion of African indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) in South Africa. This article will attempt to analyse the dominant values of the National Plan for Higher Education in South Africa as well as the underlying values portrayed by the programme for African IKS in South Africa. Thereafter the paper will demonstrate that the cultural climate emanating from the discourse in policy documents such as the 'National Plan for Higher Education' (NPHE) is relatively hostile to the value system necessary for an IKS programme to take root in South African soil. I thus want to argue that a case of conflicting values between the NPHE and the IKS programme arises from an existing split between official values and non-official values apparent in the policies governing the direction of higher education (HE) in South Africa. The paper will offer some ideas why this situation has come about and pose some critical questions for discussion.

This article applies change agency to the institutions of higher education in South Africa – referring here to all the post-school institutions and educators in general and more specifically focused on the unique opportunities and responsibilities towards change agency in theological training. The focus is on the characteristics of a change agent, which could be an individual or a group. Seemingly, change is not going to be initiated in a ‘top-down’ approach; therefore, this article suggests a ‘bottom-up’ approach, starting with a change agent (an individual or a group) to become enthusiastic and active to bring about change. The method of constructivism is used, complemented by a general literature review of the past 70 years, filled with definitions of change agents and change agency. After the discussion of a few models, the researcher ventures to propose a way in which change agency can find a foothold among theological educators in higher education institutions in South Africa.

Higher education institutions strive to ensure that their faculty are representative of the diverse students they serve. The importance of faculty diversity is particularly important in engineering, which is often dominated by white men. In South Africa, race remains contested 26 years after the end of apartheid, and the majority Black African population continues to be marginalized in political, economic, and knowledge enterprises. Black women represent 90% of the female population in South Africa. However, Black women are scarcely represented—and sometimes absent—in engineering academia. In this chapter, I argue that Black women’s career choices are influenced by their higher education experiences, which signal to Black women that they do not belong in higher education spaces. Using evidence from qualitative interviews conducted with 18 Black African women engineers in South Africa, I highlight how Black women experience higher education as racialized and gendered, discouraging them from pursuing academic careers. These race-gendered experiences need to be understood in the historical context of higher education and engineering in South Africa and in the remnants of an apartheid past that continue to impact everyday decisions of Black African South African women pursuing engineering degrees. The chapter concludes with implications and considerations for higher education institutions and engineering departments as they work to recruit and retain Black women in engineering academia.

The debate on tuition-free higher education has raged in South Africa since the #FeesMustFall protests at South African universities in 2015 and 2016. The government responded with a tuition-free education policy targeting students from households earning less than R350 000. However, the question remains can South Africa sustain a tuition-free education policy given its developing nation status and the levels of its GDP? This article sought to assess the feasibility of tuition-free higher education for all in South Africa. A scoping review was used, and fifteen articles about tuition-free higher education feasibility in South Africa were reviewed. The choice of the scoping review was due to the need for an understanding of the current state of play in research on the feasibility of tuition-free higher education in South Africa. The results suggest that tuition-free higher education for all is not feasible in South Africa. There seems to be a consensus that South Africa lacks the resources to finance tuition-free higher education for all. Tuition-free higher education is also viewed as a regressive tax on the poor given that the majority of students in higher education institutions come from middle and upper-income households. However, it is important to note that a distinction is drawn between tuition-free higher education for all and tuition-free higher education for the poor and academically deserving. The latter seems to receive support with some viewing it as a moral imperative in an unequal society such as South Africa’s. It is recommended that future studies approach the issue from an empirical standpoint whereby the GDP levels are assessed against higher education funding.

The debate on tuition-free higher education has raged in South Africa since the #FeesMustFall protests at South African universities in 2015 and 2016. The government responded with a tuition-free education policy targeting students from households earning less than R350 000. However, the question remains can South Africa sustain a tuition-free education policy given its developing nation status and the levels of its GDP? This article sought to assess the feasibility of tuition-free higher education for all in South Africa. A scoping review was used, and fifteen articles about tuition-free higher education feasibility in South Africa were reviewed. The choice of the scoping review was due to the need for an understanding of the current state of play in research on the feasibility of tuition-free higher education in South Africa. The results suggest that tuition-free higher education for all is not feasible in South Africa. There seems to be a consensus that South Africa lacks the resources to finance tuition-free higher education for all. Tuition-free higher education is also viewed as a regressive tax on the poor given that the majority of students in higher education institutions come from middle and upper-income households. However, it is important to note that a distinction is drawn between tuition-free higher education for all and tuition-free higher education for the poor and academically deserving. The latter seems to receive support with some viewing it as a moral imperative in an unequal society such as South Africa's. It is recommended that future studies approach the issue from an empirical standpoint whereby the GDP levels are assessed against higher education funding.

The turn to democracy in South Africa brought hope for a higher education sector that would play a key role in tackling racial inequalities and injustices. However, transformation promises ended up being largely smokescreens for maintaining entrenched racist and capitalist logics rooted in colonialism and apartheid. Instead of focusing on epistemic decolonisation, universities became commodified and commercialised neoliberal enterprises focused on the maintenance of Eurocentric epistemic hegemony. In this conceptual article framed within the decolonial theoretical framework, we critically interrogate how two dominant ideologies – the Rainbow Nation and neoliberalism – have sidelined fundamental transformation and epistemic decolonisation in South Africa. Focusing on the Department of Higher Education and Training’s Strategic Plan 2020–2025, we illustrate that decolonisation is not government’s priority and that neoliberal visions continue to dominate strategic planning for higher education. We argue that the lack of political will and policy alignment from the government will contribute to the further entrenchment of coloniality, Eurocentricity and neoliberal logics at universities. We conclude with the call for critical engagement with the history of universities and their role in propagating and supporting colonialism and apartheid and argue that progressive scholars and students must continue to organise within South Africa and beyond and work on the radical dismantling of the Eurocentric and neoliberal universities.Contribution: While other scholars have engaged separately with neoliberalism and the Rainbow Nation and their impact on higher education in South Africa, in this article, we bring these two ideologies together to show how they have combined to prevent decolonisation of higher education.

This study critically examines the complex challenges and opportunities in higher education in South Africa. It considers these issues in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on SDG4, which aims to ensure quality education. The research sheds light on the lasting effects of apartheid, governance concerns, and socio-economic obstacles that impede the education system. It also highlights the sector’s ability to adapt and innovate. A secondary data analysis and bibliometric analysis of 109 articles from the Scopus database were used to conduct this study. The findings reveal significant research gaps regarding the challenges and opportunities in South African higher education, emphasising the need for a more inclusive and equitable educational environment. Specifically, the study uncovers the negative impacts of the Fees Must Fall movement and the COVID-19 pandemic on educational infrastructure and accessibility. It also highlights issues of corruption and inadequate governance in institutions. However, despite these challenges, the paper argues that higher education still holds promise in the fight against poverty and inequality. It emphasises the potential of research and innovation to drive economic development and encourage international collaboration. As a result, the study emphasises the importance of strategic reforms to address deficiencies in management and governance, promote racial and gender equality, and adapt to digital education methods. These reforms are crucial for ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of higher education in South Africa.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, has caused a swift change in the higher education system giving way to a rise in instituting multimodal teaching and learning approaches. These approaches have demonstrated an inadequate capacity for multimodal teaching, particularly through online instruction by many institutions. The Department of Higher Education in South Africa did its utmost best to equip the institutions with the required resources to continue with the provision of education. Methods: A descriptive qualitative research design was followed in the study. The study data source included the South African government’s COVID-19 regulations relating to higher education and training. The purposive sampling method was used to select (8) several government documents relating to the regulation of COVID-19 in higher education and training institutions Document analysis technique was used to collect data from the COVID-19 pandemic regulation documents. Results: the study showed that most HEIs in South Africa adhere to safety measures, ensure business continuity in teaching and learning, continued with the distribution of National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances as allocated by the government, and followed procedures for returning certain categories of students on campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: The study has evaluated the support for quality higher education teaching and learning during the pandemic period in South Africa. The study, therefore, recommends the continuing of online teaching as part of blended learning so that institutions could always be ready should situations like this occurs again in the future and above be in sync with digital transformation.

Higher education institutions in South Africa are increasingly embracing various benchmarking strategies to achieve their organizational transformation agenda. While there is evidence that suggests many universities have adopted different types of benchmarking strategies, very little is known of the impact of such strategies. This case study examined the impact of benchmarking in Higher Education in South Africa with special reference to Central University of Technology. A total of 62 lecturers participated in the study. Data for the study was collected using questionnaire. And analyzed used SPSS software. The study reveals many staff members are familiar with benchmarking and therefore it is not widely practiced. The findings also highlight some disincentives and problems associated with the use of benchmarking as a quality assurance tool at Central University of Technology. On a positive note, the study reveals that over 50% of lecturers agree that benchmarking offer a number of benefits for higher education and therefore can play a great role in achieving organizational transformation strategy in Higher Education institutions in South Africa. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p521

Foreign language learning is a hallmark of the internationalisation of university education and a key to enabling graduates to participate in a globalising world. Currently, China is both a global political player and a key market and trading partner for the West and for Africa. Linked to these economic and political factors, non-Chinese speakers in higher education systems worldwide are showing a rapidly expanding interest in learning Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language. Notwithstanding the complexity of learning Chinese, the expansion of Mandarin tuition on all levels of education has exhibited a striking linguistic pattern. In line with international trends, the demand for learning Mandarin as a foreign language in higher education in South Africa is mainly driven by China’s political importance and the burgeoning trade partnership between China and South Africa. This article provides an exploratory overview of the teaching of Mandarin as a foreign language and the related study of Chinese culture in four higher education institutions in South Africa: The University of South Africa (Unisa), The University of Stellenbosch (US), Rhodes University (RU) and The University of Cape Town (UCT). The article concludes with an appraisal of the small but growing interest in Mandarin study in the higher education system of this country. An argument is presented that this promotes the internationalisation of South Africa's higher education, that the inclusion of cultural studies in language courses offers a deeper engagement than language studies alone, and that a current weakness in provision is the lack of articulation with postgraduate degrees in Chinese language study and research. Finally, the role of the Confucius Institutes in the provision of Mandarin tuition is highlighted.

Globally, higher education remains a highly competitive environment, where striving towards good institutional reputation, as well as academic and research stature is high on the agendas. As such, research intelligence is fast becoming a topic of discussion. Measuring progress and success is a strategic and data-driven process. This paper reports on a collaborative autoethnographic study on a research capacity development project. It further explores the importance of the management of research towards creating, managing and utilising data-driven research intelligence in a private higher education institution in South Africa. Reflecting on this project, stretching over a five-year period, the study aims to shed light on further implementations by exploring how available data could translate into research intelligence. The study considers the role of research intelligence by comparing it to the strategic value of strategic and business intelligence. It explores how reliable research intelligence could inform and support strategies in developing a maturing academic environment, and how current and potential solutions could be applied for strategic decision making. The study adds knowledge to an under-researched area in higher education in South Africa. It offers recommendation for more effective management of research data and research intelligence.

Nelson Mandela once argued that ‘education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world’. This sentiment is echoed by governments and citizens across the world. Education can help us to better understand the world around us and our place in it, equipping us to push for positive social, economic and political changes. Calls for accessible Higher Education (HE) in South (and the rest of) Africa make perfect sense: a university degree is a passport to a better life for those who have it. For example, the unemployment rate for those with a university degree is significantly lower than for those without. In addition, university campuses offer more than just taught knowledge: they are a place where young people build networks, relationships and values (see, e.g. May & Jones in this volume, Chapter 5). They are where the future business, political and intellectual leaders of a country are forged. Africa, generally, is faced with numerous serious challenges regarding access to HE, and this chapter explores some of the key ones with particular reference to South Africa.